Matt Kaufman, Senior Vice President and Head of ETFs for Calamos Investments, joined Keith Black, Managing Director of RIA Channel, to discuss trends driving the ETF market.
Actively managed ETFs recently reached $1 trillion in AUM, doubling in 18 months. There are two key types of actively managed ETFs. First, there are actively managed strategies, many of which are being converted from mutual funds to the ETF format. Second, here are funds that modify the risk-return payoff of a passive index using options strategies. BlackRock forecasts that structured outcome ETF assets will triple to $650 billion by 2030. Kaufman notes that structured outcome ETFs are providing value to clients and to advisor businesses.
Structured outcome ETFs allow advisors to provide their clients with risk management certainty. Investors and their advisors can know the level of upside opportunity and downside protection before investing in a specific ETF. Investors are encouraged to investigate the types of funds available, which range from full principal protection to those with smaller buffers against market loss. Calamos has offered capital-protected ETFs since 2023, and these funds provided strong protection during the market decline in March and April of 2025. While drawdowns reached 11% for the S&P 500, 18% for the Nasdaq 100, and 26% for bitcoin, the Calamos funds offering full principal protection were able to protect against almost all of that downside in real time.
Advisors are using the fully principal-protected Calamos ETFs as alternatives to cash and fixed income investments. Rather than earning 2.5% after-tax returns in money market funds, investors have the potential to earn 7% to 9% in the equity market while experiencing full principal protection over the complete outcome period. These funds are especially popular with retirees, who will soon comprise one-fourth of the US population. It is important for retirees to invest in ways that outpace inflation while reducing exposure to the full drawdown potential of the equity market. Other investors who are looking to derisk their equity portfolios may invest 70% in market index funds and 30% in structured outcome funds.
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